techno article.

How Science Can Create Millions of New Jobs
Reigniting basic research can repair the broken U.S. business model and put Americans back to work

Name an industry that can produce 1 million new, high-paying jobs over the next three years. You can't, because there isn't one. And that's the problem.
America needs good jobs, soon. We need 6.7 million just to replace losses from the current recession, then an additional 10 million to keep up with population growth and to spark demand over the next decade. In the 1990s the U.S. economy created a net 22 million jobs, or 2.2 million a year. But from 2000 to the end of 2007, the rate plunged to 900,000 a year. The pipeline is dry because the U.S. business model is broken. Our growth engine has run out of a key fuel—basic research.
The U.S. infrastructure for scientific innovation has historically consisted of a loose public-private partnership. It included legendary institutions such as Bell Labs, RCA Labs, Xerox (XRX) PARC, and the research operations of IBM (IBM), along with NASA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and others. In each of these organizations, programs with clear commercial potential were supported alongside pure research. There was ample corporate and venture capital funding for commercialization, so the labs were able to make enormous contributions to science, technology, and the economy—including the creation of millions of high-paying jobs.
Consider a few milestones from Bell Labs: Fax transmission, long-distance television transmission, photovoltaic solar cells, the transistor, the UNIX operating system, and cellular telephony. Each of these innovations laid the groundwork for vibrant new industries. The transistor alone is the building block for computers, consumer electronics, telecom systems, high-tech medical devices, and much more. Likewise, DARPA's creation of the Internet (as ARPAnet) in 1969 and Xerox PARC's development of Ethernet and the graphical user interface (GUI) set the stage for the PC revolution. These basic research breakthroughs unleashed cycles of applied innovation that created entirely new sectors of our economy.
But since the 1990s, funding for basic research has slowly declined. Bell Labs had 30,000 employees as recently as 2001; today (under current owner Alcatel-Lucent (ALU)) it has 1,000. That's symbolic and symptomatic of the broken link in the U.S. business model. With upstream invention and discovery drying up, innovations capable of generating an industry have thinned to a trickle.
It's tempting to ascribe current job losses in the U.S. to the deep recession or to outsourcing, but the root of the problem is the absence of high-value job creation. We have been through three recessions since 1981, not including the current economic meltdown. Throughout those years, U.S. companies have engaged in aggressive outsourcing, yet the economy bounced back from each downturn with a new blockbuster industry or two. Eventually we will emerge from the current recession, but don't expect to see the same kind of job-creating vigor this time around.
In the past, when the U.S. exported high-paying jobs to low-wage countries, we replaced them with even greater numbers of high-paying jobs in industries whose inception could be traced back to science done decades earlier. The PC, Internet, and cellular industries, born in the 1980s and 1990s, more than offset the loss of high-paying jobs in consumer electronics, steel, and other sectors. But in recent years, outsourced software and manufacturing jobs have largely been replaced by millions of low-wage service jobs in fast-food, retail, and the like.
Compounding the effects of outsourcing and extended recession, the ongoing destruction of old business models (think print journalism, the music business, and landline telephones) will slash a large number of high-value jobs in the coming decade. The result? A broken demand structure. Of the roughly 130 million jobs in the U.S., only 20%, or 26 million, pay more than $60,000 a year. The other 80% pay an average of $33,000. That ratio is not a good foundation for a strong middle class and a prosperous society. It's time to identify—and fix—the root of the problem.

tech. article

Advances in Student Access to Technology and Online Resources.
by David R. Erickson

Ratios of students to computers and numbers of schools with Internet access continue to change almost exponentially as education agencies invest in learning technologies. For instance, last year, Maine provided every seventh- and eighth-grade student an Apple iBook to use through the Maine Learning Technology Initiative. Also, the Technology Innovation Challenge Grant (TICG) program, having a goal to increase student access to technology, encourages participants to focus on innovative ways to use technology rather than just placing more computers in the classroom. This article shares some of the TICG program's successes in advancing student access through innovative technology uses.
Online Student Resources
The Montana TALES (Technology and Learning in Every School) project (www.soe.umt.edu/ders/tales) encourages educators and students to tell multimedia digital stories. Using a constructivist framework, learners create personal and meaningful tales about the traditions, customs, beliefs and legends of Montana through multimedia software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple iMovie and Adobe Premiere. This same philosophy of learning is shared by most of the TICG projects.
NatureShift! (www.natureshift. org), a partnership between Dakota Science Center and Grand Forks Public Schools, developed a comprehensive digital library of resources, hands-on activities and Web links for students through interdisciplinary online modules covering science, history and culture. The site's major areas include NatureShift! for Kids; NatureShift! Cafe; Robot Lab; History Lab; environmental investigations, resources and activities with Ranger Rosie; astronomy-related adventures in Dakota Skies; and Wounded Hawk, which offers a Native American Survival Challenge. These interactive Web pages build upon necessary components of WebQuests. They also provide links to reviewed educational sites and tasks for students to undertake in an investigative, problem-solving environment.
Rural areas face a lack of access to resources, including fewer course offerings and limited arts and museum facilities. The BorderLink Project (www.borderlink.org) tackled these inequities, which limit future college opportunities, by providing videoconferencing courses in AP chemistry and music appreciation (among others) as well as developing a 3-D Web site, LinkWorld (www.borderlink.org/linkworld.html). Here, students and teachers move about the virtual world as avatars, communicating through chat functions and creating virtual art shows. For example, students' paintings were viewed and discussed by other student artists and visitors from the United States and Europe at a recent Cubist painting show. In addition, for Cinco de Mayo, pupils met the historical characters from the original events as played by current students who researched those roles.
CyberCampuses, multimedia computer labs with videoconferencing and TV studios, are one of the products offered by the Education Future NOW Project (www.dlt.ncssm.edu/now) at The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. These Cyber Campuses allow students and teachers to collaborate on learning to use education technology. Students, organized in SWAT (students working to advance technology) teams, take an active role in mentoring other students and teachers, managing videoconferences, creating video productions, and developing animated Web sites. Students also become active participants in the development of technology resources and skills.
Conclusion
Innovation is key to meaningful change. Putting students in positions of active involvement in their learning through well-planned instructional investigations, either online or by making significant new uses of technology, is at the heart of a transformative technology approach to education.
David R. Erickson is a research associate professor for the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at The University of Montana-Missoula. He has been involved in teaching middle school, high school, and college mathematics and computer science for 30 years. Erickson has also spent 13 years preparing future teachers and working with in-service teachers. E-mail: David. Erickson@mso.umt.edu
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Questia Media America, Inc. www.questia.com Publication Information: Article Title: Advances in Student Access to Technology and Online Resources. Contributors: David R. Erickson - author. Journal Title: T H E Journal. Volume: 31. Issue: 2. Publication Year: 2003. Page Number: 34+. COPYRIGHT 2003 T.H.E. Journal, LLC; COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group

how do i feel about Computers?

i cant begin to explain how beneficial the computer and technology is to me, but i must say there are negative aspects as well. i will start with the benefits of computers. computers help people in many ways, they serve as a guide to many people and to others its even a means of income! Computers serve as a way to learn new things, (research and articles) and expressing your opinion as stated in the Constitution, so i guess if you have a computer your patriotic. but they can be negative because people then become lazy, they become too dependant on the computer and don't use any other resource. Technology is absolutely beneficial, i cant find one negative thing in it other than maybe humans dependency on them, which is not so much a bad thing since its OK to be dependant on certain things. but the pros outweigh the cons.

the ITGS traigle approch

item:smart board

section 2: a social context
the smart bored helps students interact rather than just observe.



Section 1: social and ethical issues
by exposing the smart bored to the students it gives them another way to learn which makes them a well rounded individual.


section 3: Area of impact
education. The smart bored helps with education in a number of ways. it helps improve the learning process and helps with the education process.

Networking

many people use the Internet for networking, some examples of sites are:
1.Facebook
2.Myspace
3.Twitter
4. AIM
5. Geocites
just to name a few.

Authenticity: Facebook
Facebook has many security settings to ensure that the users are authentic and that everyone is safe. Authenticity ensures the safety of the user, so they feel comfortable using the site.
facebook is well known through out the world therefore has to authentic, there was nothing quite like it other than myspace, which by then had already accumulated a sour reputation.

Death star

Intellectual Property
the Death star in all its glory, will have to get a patents because of how original it is. but they dont have to get patents because they have siths to protect it. the Deathstar has amazing Software that only deathstar can have, They discovered how how to use technology to thier advantage and create a huge space station. It would be hard to duplicate, but if anyone everwanted to, they would be pretty wealthy for haveing such a station. If they want to keep the good, or rather evil, name of "death star" they should get a patent to protect it. if not Anikin or Princess leia would harness this technology to make one similar.

Aug. 18

list several ways you interact with computers in your daily life:



Computers are a major component in my life. it is a significant source of entertainment and communication. Also now that I'm in school, I'm on the computer more often due to ITGS. i keep fairly entertained on the computer. i go on networking sites such as Facebook, and use my email to talk to people for other cities, states and even countries. the computer is very important when it comes to school because most classes require me to type and print out homework assiments. also i use the Internet for research for school. when looking for news i go to the computer. my life would be very different without the computer.